Anthony D’Amico, MD, PhD, chief of genitourinary radiation oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, led researchers in analyzing data from a 31-year study out of University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany. The study, published July 2 in European Urology Oncology, reviewed findings from 10,228 GGG 1 prostate cancer patients who underwent a radical prostatectomy.
Of the GGG 1 patients, 9,248 were diagnosed by a transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) biopsy while 980 were diagnosed by a combination of TRUS and MRI. Adverse pathology was found in 10.33% of patients diagnosed by TRUS and in 7.86% of patients diagnosed by TRUS and MRI.
The findings indicate that 1 in 12 of the patients studied had a more aggressive form of prostate cancer than originally diagnosed, the researchers said.
Meanwhile, some physicians have called to reclassify lowest-risk prostate cancer to encourage less invasive treatment options.
While evidence demonstrates active surveillance is an effective way to manage low-grade prostate cancer, around 40% of men with a lower-grade diagnosis choose more aggressive treatment options, Becker’s reported earlier this year. Physicians have proposed referring to it as a premalignant lesion instead.
The study identified two risk factors for physicians to use to inform treatment plans: Patients with a high prostate-specific antigen level or patients whose cancer is found in 50% or more of their biopsy samples have a higher risk of disease and death.
“For patients with GGG1 who are at heightened risk, we should continue to call their diagnosis cancer,” Dr. D’Amico said in a July 9 news release from Somerville-Mass.-based Mass General Brigham.
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